Today, Fisherman’s Wharf is a popular (and sometimes mocked) tourist destination. But the “fisherman” isn’t just a marketing slogan. A trip to The Chronicle’s archive helped trace the long history of commercial fishing at the wharf.

One of the earlier Chronicle stories about Fisherman’s Wharf was a big Sunday feature from Sept. 28, 1902. San Francisco had become the premier fishing city in the U.S., Chronicle writer Jack Foisie reported, and San Franciscans were consuming $3.5 million worth of fresh fish a year. At the wharf, an army of 3,000 workers gathered, marketed and distributed much of the catch.

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Foisie’s story also detailed how Fisherman’s Wharf came to be. In 1900, California set aside the waterfront between Taylor and Leavenworth streets for commercial fishing boats and wholesale fish sales — modeled after the Fulton Street Wharf in New York City.

In 1958, writer Hal Gilliam saluted Tom Castagnola as the fisherman who first set up a rough board outdoor counter and began to sell Crab Louis. Mike Geraldi is credited with selling the first complete seafood dinner. By the late 1950s, when the article was written, restaurants were “shoe-horned into every available space on the wharf.”

In the early 1960s, tourist shops and attractions appeared at the wharf. The first Cost Plus opened there in 1958. A wax museum opened in 1963, signaling the destination’s future.

“It was gangbuster’s business — there was a line out the door and around the block,” The Chronicle quoted employee Ronald Fong as saying.

In 1967, Robert Ripley, whose Odditorium had been a big hit at the 1939-40 Golden Gate International Exposition, added a “Believe it or Not” museum at Fisherman’s Wharf. Tourist magnet Pier 39 opened in 1978.

By the mid-1980s, the commercial fishing area was falling apart. “Facilities are so bad down here, it is pathetic,” Pat Flanagan, owner of Standard Fisheries, was quoted as saying. “The port seems to spend all its time worrying about the big container ships, not us.”

Bad conditions meant a lack of growth at the wharf. “It’s not an inviting port to go to, because the conditions are medieval,” San Francisco fisheries consultant Erik Norgaard said in 1987.

It took 10 years of plans, meetings and the Loma Prieta earthquake in 1989, but by 1996 Pier 45 had seen $7.6 million in repairs.

“Pier 45 was a real rathole, and now you probably have the most modern fish facility on the West Coast,” said Bob Miller, the president of the Crab Boat Owners Association. “The earthquake did some good.”

Today, the fresh seafood options remain, with tourists piling off buses and sea lions barking after hunting for their dinner.

•Let’s go back:Here’s a story about the return of “straight-from-the-boat” fish sales at the wharf.

•Dive in: Decades ago, this was San Francisco’s most-hated boat. Learn about the Fort Sutter, a retired riverboat that entrepreneur Barney Gould planned to turn into a floating restaurant and theater showcase.

•One more vessel: The Zaca was a storied yacht born in the Bay Area whose 20th century voyage was filled with more tales than most fleets see in a lifetime — and whose exploits were covered in great depth in The Chronicle.

Bill Van Niekerken is the Library Director of the San Francisco Chronicle. He does research for reporters and editors and manages the photos, negatives and text archives. He has a weekly column “From the Archive”, that focuses on photo coverage of historic events. For this column Bill scans and publishes 20-30 images from photos and negatives that haven’t been seen in many years.

Bill started working at the Mercury News in 1980, when nothing in news libraries was digital. Research was done using paper clippings, and cameras shot film. He moved to the Chronicle in 1985, just as the library was beginning their digital text archive.